Liga Federal

Infobox Former Country
conventional_long_name = League of the Free Peoples
native_name = "Liga de los Pueblos Libres"
common_name = Liga Federal
continent = South America
country = Argentina
era =
status = Unrecognized state
event_start =
year_start = 1815
date_start =
event_end = The provinces of the Liga Federal joined the United Provinces after the Unitarists's defeat in the Battle of Cepeda
year_end = 1820
date_end =
p1 = Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
s1 = Argentina
s2 = Uruguay
s3 = Republic of Entre Ríos
flag_p1 = Flag of Spain (1785-1873 and 1875-1931).svg
flag_s1 = Flag of Liga Federal.svg
flag_s2 = Flag of Uruguay.svg
flag_s3 = Flag of Entre Rios (1820-1821).svg

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image_map_caption = Liga Federal which was made up of present day, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Misiones, Provincia Oriental and Santa Fe
common_languages = Spanish
government_type = Federal government
capital = Purificación
currency =
leader1 = José Gervasio Artigas
year_leader1 =
title_leader =
stat_year1 =
stat_area1 =

The Liga Federal (1815-1820) or Liga de los Pueblos Libres ("League of the Free Peoples" in English) was a small confederal state in what is now Argentina and Uruguay that was created after the break up of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. The idea of federalist country originates from José Gervasio Artigas, a soldier and former Spanish army officer. The country was dissolved after facing attacks from the invading Portuguese empire from Brazil and other Spanish forces from the newly created United Provinces of South America.

History

On May 13, 1810, the arrival of a British frigate in Montevideo confirmed the rumors circulating in Buenos Aires: France, led by Emperor Napoleon, had invaded Spain, capturing and overthrowing Ferdinand VII Bourbon, the Spanish King. The situation was clear: with the authority of the viceregency gone, there was a power vacuum. Leading figures in Buenos Aires quickly arranged a meeting and after much discussion it was decided to replace the Spanish rule with a local Junta

After the May Revolution, most of the provinces of former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata got together forming the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, also known as United Provinces of South America in 1810. The four provinces of Upper Peru (Today's Bolivia) were occupied by Spanish Royalist forces and the other ten provinces were under pressure from Royalist forces.

José Gervasio Artigas

In 1810, Spain moved the headquarters for the Viceroyalty of the River Plate to Montevideo after the May Revolution forced them to abandon Buenos Aires. On February 15, 1811 José Gervasio Artigas left his home of Montevideo and moved to Buenos Aires to offer his military services. The people of Spanish America were fighting for their freedom and Artigas wished to defend these ideals in the Eastern Bank. At the beginning of April he returned to his country with approximately 180 men provided by the Government of Buenos Aires; on April 11, he issued the Mercedes Proclamation, assumed control of the revolution and on May 18 defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Las Piedras. He then began the siege of Montevideo and was acclaimed as The First Chief of the "Orientals" (the first names of current Uruguay being Banda Oriental (Eastern Bank) and later Provincia Oriental (Eastern Province), Uruguayans thus refer to themselves as 'Orientales').

He soon turned against the government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and in 1814 he organized the Liga de los Pueblos Libres (League of the Free Peoples), of which he was declared Protector. In the following year, as a federalist, he liberated Montevideo from the centralizing control of the "Unitarians", installed in Buenos Aires and in 1815 declared the Liga Federal. In this congress Artigas ratified the use of the flag created by Manuel Belgrano (which would later become the flag of the Argentine Republic), but added a diagonal festoon in red, red being the sign of federalism in Argentina at that time. cite web |date=2005-01-22 |url = http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/xl_arti.html#hist|title = Flag of the Federal League, a.k.a. Artiga’s flag (Eastern Bank of La Plata: Uruguay and northeastern|format = HTML |publisher = pub| accessdate = 2008-04-08 | last=antonio martins |quote=The red, blue and white colours were used by Artigas to establish a clear difference between the flag of the Eastern Province. These three colours evoke the colours of the french Tricolor of French Revolution days. At the beginning of the XIX century, red and blue were the colours you could find when looking for cloth for the soldiers’ uniforms, in these Spanish colonies. Materials came in two shades of blue. One, the lightest, was celestial or “heavenly” blue and had been chosen by Belgrano for the flag of the May 1810 Revolution leading to the Argentine Independence. Four or five years later, not wanting his colors to be similar or confused with those of the Buenos Aires government, against whose dominance he would be soon fighting, Artigas chose to design his flag and other provinces which were with him in opposing Buenos Aires domination, in colours not existing in the Argentine flag. The shade of blue he adopted therefore was navy blue.Jorge Cajarville, 16 Jun 1999] The Liga Federal original member provinces were the present day Argentinian provinces of:
*Córdoba
*Corrientes
*Entre Ríos
*Misiones
* Provincia Oriental
*Santa Fe.

Downfall

The constant growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened Buenos Aires (due to its federalism) and Portugal (because of its republicanism), and in August, 1816 the latter invaded the Eastern Province (with Buenos Aires's tacit complicity)cite web |date=2007 |url = http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/jos%E9-gervasio-artigas/his-life.html|title = José Gervasio Artigas|format = HTML |publisher = pub| accessdate = 2008-04-08 | last= |quote=A year later, [1816] the Portuguese empire, supported by the centralist Buenos Aires government, invaded from Brazil. He continued fighting against Portugal but was utterly defeated in 1820. He was then exiled to Paraguay, were he died in 1850.] , with the intention of destroying the protector Artigas and his revolution.

The Portuguese forces, led by Carlos Frederico Lecor, thanks to his numerical and material superiority, conquered Artigas and his deputies and occupied Montevideo on January 20, 1817, but the struggle continued for three long years in the countryside. Infuriated by Buenos Aires's passivity, Artigas declared war at the same time that he faced the Portuguese with armies that were decimated by successive defeats. His subordinates, members of the Federal League--Francisco Ramírez, governor of Entre Ríos, and Estanislao López, governor of Santa Fe--managed to end the victorious struggle against the centralism of Buenos Aires. But any hope of a new nation was short-lived; both commanders entered agreements with Buenos Aires which went against the principles of Artigas. They finally rebelled against him and left him to be crushed by the Lusitanians.

Without resources and without suitable men for the struggle the federal nation of Liga Federal dissolved and Artigas withdrew to Paraguay on his own in September, 1820.cite web |date=2007 |url = http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/southamerica/a/UruArtigas.htm|title = José Gervasio Artigas|format = HTML |publisher = about.com| accessdate = 2008-04-08 | last= Bonnie Hamre|quote=] In Paraguay, Dr. Francia, the dictator, banished him to Candelaria. He then disappeared from the political life of the region.

Aftermath

The provinces of the Liga Federal joined the United Provinces after the Unitarists's defeat in the Battle of Cepeda allowed federal elements of the United Provinces government to seize control.

United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in BLUE
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in blue

References